Well, at least someone in the media has figured it out;
I am beginning to wonder if this market is adding restaurants faster than it’s growing the resident and visitor population.
That’s one of the problems. The other is horrible service (many experienced managers and servers left the industry during Covid, permanently). Prices of course with inflation are also to blame. Food quality is also at an all time low due to cost cutting by restaurants. Also, there really is no destinations. Just look at the restaurants and bars that are always busy, they have great service, good food, decent price points and a reason to be there. I’m sorry, an aluminum stool at a bar with Coors Light on tap and a buffalo chicken wrap on the menu isn’t roping me in or keeping me there. I think the hospitality industry in Sioux Falls needs to realize the same old, same old, just ain’t cutting it anymore.
There is only a handful of locally owned restaurants I go to anymore, and they are getting slimmer. I also got a kick out of this statement;
and even the impact of so many people using weight-loss drugs,
I about fell out of my chair laughing at that one. If people can’t afford to go out to eat, they certainly can’t afford $1,000 a month designer diet pills. Look around at people when you are at a restaurant and count the people who are NOT overweight. You may find 2-3 out of 40. Trust me, people are getting enough food to eat. It’s the garbage we are being fed.
I do think that things like Ozempic are having an impact on the food industry, however. Walmart has noticed a decline in food purchases by their customers, that can be linked to those who also purchase Ozempic type drugs from their pharmacy:
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/ozempic-drug-users-are-buying-less-food-walmart-says-rcna119000
But you are right: service is not as good as it used to be, plates have become too expensive, and Sioux Falls has appeared to have lost many of its quaint establishments that make eating out fun. Although, I did have a great Rueben at the Attic the other night
….. #ThanksALotCOVID!
( and Woodstock adds: “Say, when I go to finance that Burger Battle burger at Minervas for $55 a plate, can I still use the same mortgagor that I use when I buy an $8 roll from Cinnabon?”…. )
“This also reflects why it’s key to continue investing in our visitor industry …”
The Chamber Cheerleader brings it back to her still-veiled advocation that we MUST build a new convention center downtown. Why? Well, to keep more restaurants in business!
Jodi is always a reliable water carier for those who want to advance their “vision” using other people’s money.
Sioux Falls is not lacking on places to dump something close to food in your stomach as long as your taste buds are not activated. We have 1,000 places to called “restaurants?” and maybe half a dozen where your taste buds are activated. We have way too many copycats getting processed ingredients out of the same delivery trucks, warming / making the same bar “food”. Our food bars specialize in quantity over service or taste at higher and higher prices. I quit going out to eat in Sioux Falls because either we have to deal with ultra christianist places with over processed stuff to make you fat or corporations with their chemical diets designed to reserve you to death.
No thanks, I can make my own menus at home better than most of these garbage stations.
Tax on tips has had an effect. When I see suggested or automatic tip, I’m not likely to come back. What happened to 15%? It’s 18% minimum. There’s an extra level of overhead expense tracking tips. Employees must be paid more, there’s food inflation price, and rent keeps rising. It’s become impossible to keep up with menu pricing. Restaurant managers are pressured for more profit. National franchises are greedier. Whatever can be done to keep a profit margin is done.
Basically, prior operations don’t work anymore. It’s better to make a meal at home. I’ll never order from a kiosk and artificial intelligence never gets it right. Perhaps church lady food for what you decide to donate that’s not taxed. Boomers are dying off. Do the church funeral route.
Ozempic may be a trendy thing these days but the idea that droves of people who formerly hit restaurants every night are no longer doing so is nonsense. Plus, it’s not like being on these drugs means you don’t eat at all, especially when it comes to sit down restaurants.
I’d say the biggest issue with food establishments in this town is the fact that there are way too many of them, and the death of traditional media (cable TV, print media) makes it next to impossible to advertise. Social media is great for established businesses but not new ones.
And can we stop with the silly stories on KELO or Jodi’s publication that blames everybody but the business for their closing? A large percentage are closing because they should close, and as potential customers we don’t owe them our patronage.
Ozempic is to the food industry what streaming was to video stores. There’s a reason why that Jenny Craig place doesn’t exist down the road from my house anymore. Since being on Rybelsus, I now always ask for a to-go box (another expense for restaurants) before I leave a dining place. That Reuben that I mentioned above became three dinners for me this past week, thanks to Rybelsus…. But part of the problem is also, and mentioned by others above, that the food tastes too much the same at each establishment because they are all using the same processed food wholesalers.
“I can’t wait to go to Minervas and eat some of those black charred fries that come with their $55 Burger Battle burger”….. #MayIHaveAMomentWithTheChef?
Maybe the answer is more food trucks.
Oh, and my house still stands while that historic 1920s-era Standard Oil gas station at 18th & Minnesota will soon be demolished. #LifeIsNotFair
R.I.P. old 1920s era Standard Oil gas station, but at least the Bunker Ramp still stands along with some new grandeur homes in a “Historic District,” and that house at 33rd & Duluth.
More people need to talk about the bad service in Sioux falls. I agree with you on that point. I’ve lived in many places, and consistently, Sioux falls has awful, terrible, carelessly bad customer service. At all stores, not just restaurants, but definitely restaurants. They are SO bad. Isn’t anyone teaching customer service in the area? The restaurants all need it. It’s not just wait staff, for example, Lucky’s owner, Tupy or whatever, was writing rude comments back to bad reviews about his bar on Google. Bad look, but I know many restaurant business owners are just so unprofessional, they’re just lucky they’re rich.